Six Battleships Sunk.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 26, 1912:
By Use of Dummy Periscope, Submarines Win Mock Naval Attack.
    NEWPORT, R. I., July 25.— Theoretically the United States lost six big battleships to-day in an engagement with submarines.
    The Florida, Delaware, North Dakota, Utah, Louisiana, and Kansas, comprising the first and second divisions of the Atlantic fleet, were awaiting the attack of the submarines, screened by about fifteen torpedo-boat destroyers. The men on watch discovered what appeared to be periscopes of approaching submarines, and the vessels began firing to "disable" them.
    The supposed periscopes proved to be dummies which the "enemy" had set afloat to deceive the commanders of the battleships, and while these dummies were being made the object of attack the real submarines dove under the destroyers and came up almost under the battleships. It is said to be the first instance of the use of dummy periscopes in a naval war game.